The brilliant activist Naomi Clark recently prepared the materials below for a political educationi session about Haiti at SRLP's winter retreat. I thought others might want to use them to do similar sessions at your school, job, church, family event, dinner party, etc. She had them prepared as two pages: the timeline page and the quotes and questions page. Thanks, Naomi!

HAITI: Brief Historical Summary

1492 Over a million of the Taino & Arawak peoples live on the island of Hispaniola. Christopher Columbus arrives and leaves a crew there to start a settlement. He comes back a year later to find the settlement destroyed by mistreated Taino locals.

1503 The Spanish governor orders the execution of Queen Anacaona of the Taino. Her people are slaughtered. Within two decades, only 5-10% of the original Taino population are left, decimated by genocide and smallpox.

1520s Spain starts to lose interest in Hispaniola as there’s more gold elsewhere. Pirates start to use the island of Tortuga as a base.

1577 Spain orders 15,000 African slaves to be shipped to Hispaniola to serve as a labor force, and sugar plantations start to take over as the main industry.

1664 France claims the western half of the island.

1750s Slaves start escaping and forming villages in the mountains, raiding the French.

1787 More than 40,000 Africans are brought in as slaves every year, totaling 500,000 serving under a white population of 32,000 on 8,000 plantations and supplying more than half of Europe with sugar, coffee, and cotton.

1789 The French Revolution overthrows monarchy there. The next year, mulattos in Haiti begin to agitate for the same political rights as white citizens. Unrest breaks out between whites, mulattos and free blacks who opposed abolition, and slaves wanting freedom.

1793 French general Sonthonax proclaims the slaves in Haiti free, in a limited way, and arms the slaves.

1798 Toussaint L’Overture, a freed slave, unites the country against the French and is in control by 1801. A year later, he is captured by the French and soon dies in a French prison.

1803 Haiti declares independence, becoming the second republic in the Western Hemisphere and the first run by people of African descent. Meanwhile, a United States force invades and steals Haiti’s financial reserves.

1805 French diplomat Talleyrand convinces the United States to embargo Haiti and refuse to recognize it as a country, which it does (along with European nations) until 1862.

1820 The French park warships offshore and threaten to invade and institute slavery unless Haiti pays reparations of 150 million gold francs. The amount is later reduced to 90 million since Haiti cannot pay without taking loans from French banks. It takes until 1947 to pay off all the debt. (2.5 billion in today’s US$)

1824 Over 6000 free blacks from the United States immigrate to Haiti, promoted by the Haitian government.

1843 A period of riots, transitional governments, and military rule begins.

1867 A new constitutional government restores order, and a period of economic and cultural prosperity begins.

1911 German nationals control a large portion of Haiti’s economy, which worries the US. The US government backs a consortium of investors which takes over Haiti’s national bank.

1915 The United States invades in order “to protect American and foreign interests” and sets up a mulatto-run government under its control. The US builds a lot of infrastructure, and Americans occupy a “Millionaire’s Row” in the capital.

1934 Due to criticism of exclusion of Haitians from power and the failing economy of the Great Depression, the US allows democratic elections and withdraws its military forces. Haiti remains under US financial control, however, until 1947.

1957 Francois Duvalier gains power and after a few years declares himself dictator for life. Under his repressive government, 30,000 Haitians are killed while Duvalier supporters grow rich. The United States embargoes Haiti yet again.

1971 Duvalier dies after naming his 19-year-old son as successor. The new regime is backed by US and European interests.

1990 Liberation theologian and Catholic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide is elected in a free election. His radical populist policies alarm the elite classes. He is ousted a year later in a coup thought to be backed by the US under Bush Sr.

1994 After several years of human rights abuses under a military dictatorship, the Clinton administration threatens military action in “Operation Restore Democracy” and has Aristide reinstated--on the condition he allows Haitian industry to be privatized and only stays in office for two years.

1996 Rene Preval, an Aristide ally, is elected, but then has a split from Aristide, who forms a new party.

2000 Opposing parties in Haiti clash over election irregularities and accusations of US-backed fraud. Aristide is re-elected but accused of stealing the vote by international media, and of corruption, drug trafficking, and even voudoun baby-eating by opponents.

2004 Anti-Aristide riots break out into rebellion. Aristide accuses foreign powers include the US of instigating a coup and kidnapping him to the Central African Republic. Aristide opponents accuse him of embezzling millions ($US), but nothing is ever proven.

2006 Preval is re-elected (and is still president).

2010 A magnitude 7.0 earthquake hits Haiti and levels the capital. The United States and the international community respond with promises of aid, as do many large NGOs.

Thanks to the L’overture Project, HaitiAction.net, the Telegraph, Jafrikayiti, and Jean Saint-Vil for historical references.

DISCUSSION: QUOTES ABOUT HAITI
The existence of a negro people in arms, occupying a country which it has soiled by the most criminal acts, is a horrible spectacle for all white nations.
- Charles Talleyrand, the most influential French diplomat of the time, in an 1805 letter to James Madison where he urged the US to blockade Haiti

I can give a press release and say that I've just saved your life, and you could be six feet under the ground. Until they discover that you are dead, my press release is what counts. And that is the situation with Haiti. We've been hearing everyone claiming about how they're helping Haiti. I hear organizations bragging about how "you know, we've been here for sixty years." Well yeah, precisely. If you've been here all this time, what has been happening? How come these organizations are getting stronger, bigger, more recognized, yet the people that they're helping are more despreate? And again i'll add that this situation is not limited to Haiti. The first nations people of Canada, if you read the stats, are the most impoverished people in the whole area here. I mean, the suicide rate in the First Nations communities, we all know. I think there is one hospital in all of Nunavut.
Unless we acknowledge that the society in which we live was built on international crimes, that is, white supremacists stealing land of people, the First Nations peoples of the Americas and of Africa. Unless we acknowledge that the time has come to do a paradigm shift and truly invest in human beings -- and that means not making press releases, but rather going in Nunavut and building a real university, building hospitals so that people go to high school and graduate and they themselves take care of themselves. I take the excuse of Nunavut so that people don't take the excuse that Haiti is poor like that, therefore it's a basket case, let's go "save them" while we're not saving our own people here right in Canada, so that credibility is just not there.
- Jean-Saint Vil, Canada Haiti Action, in an interview with Straight Goods News

Something happened a long time ago in Haiti and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French -- Napoleon III and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact to the devil. They said, "We will serve you if you will ll get us free from the French.” True story! And so the Devil said "OK, it's a deal" and they kicked the French out. The Haitians revolted and got themselves free. But ever since they have been cursed by one thing after the other, desperately poor.
- Televangelist Pat Robertson, shortly after the 2010 earthquake

President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, a charismatic populist priest, was overthrown by a military coup in 1991, and restored with US help in 1994. But the Americans were always suspicious of any sign of radicalism from this spokesman for the poor and the outcast and kept him on a tight lead. Tolerated by President Clinton, Aristide was treated as a pariah by the Bush administration which systematically undermined him over three years leading up to a successful rebellion in 2004. That was led by local gangsters acting on behalf of a kleptocratic Haitian elite and supported by members of the Republican Party in the US.
So much of the criticism of President Bush has focused on his wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that his equally culpable actions in Haiti never attracted condemnation. But if the country is a failed state today, partly run by the UN, in so far as it is run by anybody, then American actions over the years have a lot to do with it.
Haitians are now paying the price for this feeble and corrupt government structure because there is nobody to co-ordinate the most rudimentary relief and rescue efforts. Its weakness is exacerbated because aid has been funnelled through foreign NGOs. A justification for this is that less of the money is likely to be stolen, but this does not mean that much of it reaches the Haitian poor. A sour Haitian joke says that when a Haitian minister skims 15 per cent of aid money it is called "corruption" and when an NGO or aid agency takes 50 per cent it is called "overheads".
- Patrick Cockburn

At the airport, help continues to flow in, not just from the United States but from Brazil, Mexico, Canada, France, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic, among others. This underscores the point that I made to the President this morning: The entire world stands with the government and the people of Haiti, for in Haiti's devastation, we all see the common humanity that we share.
And as the international community continues to respond, I do believe that America has a continued responsibility to act. Our nation has a unique capacity to reach out quickly and broadly and to deliver assistance that can save lives.
That responsibility obviously is magnified when the devastation that's been suffered is so near to us. Haitians are our neighbors in the Americas, and for Americans they are family and friends. It's characteristic of the American people to help others in time of such severe need. That's the spirit that we will need to sustain this effort as it goes forward. There are going to be many difficult days ahead.
To the people of Haiti, we say clearly, and with conviction, you will not be forsaken; you will not be forgotten. In this, your hour of greatest need, America stands with you. The world stands with you. We know that you are a strong and resilient people. You have endured a history of slavery and struggle, of natural disaster and recovery. And through it all, your spirit has been unbroken and your faith has been unwavering. So today, you must know that help is arriving -- much, much more help is on the way.
- Obama speeches, January 2010

As Lawrence E. Harrison explained in his book “The Central Liberal Truth,” Haiti, like most of the world’s poorest nations, suffers from a complex web of progress-resistant cultural influences. There is the influence of the voodoo religion, which spreads the message that life is capricious and planning futile. There are high levels of social mistrust. Responsibility is often not internalized. Child-rearing practices often involve neglect in the early years and harsh retribution when kids hit 9 or 10.
We’re all supposed to politely respect each other’s cultures. But some cultures are more progress-resistant than others, and a horrible tragedy was just exacerbated by one of them.
Fourth, it’s time to promote locally led paternalism. In this country, we first tried to tackle poverty by throwing money at it, just as we did abroad. Then we tried microcommunity efforts, just as we did abroad. But the programs that really work involve intrusive paternalism.
These programs, like the Harlem Children’s Zone and the No Excuses schools, are led by people who figure they don’t understand all the factors that have contributed to poverty, but they don’t care. They are going to replace parts of the local culture with a highly demanding, highly intensive culture of achievement — involving everything from new child-rearing practices to stricter schools to better job performance.
It’s time to take that approach abroad, too. It’s time to find self-confident local leaders who will create No Excuses countercultures in places like Haiti, surrounding people — maybe just in a neighborhood or a school — with middle-class assumptions, an achievement ethos and tough, measurable demands.
- David Brooks, the New York Times

QUESTIONS FOR DISCUSSION
1. What kinds of stories has the US media been telling about the current crisis in Haiti, and why? How does this help further the cause of US power?

2. Why should the United States and other economically powerful nations feel like they should assist Haiti? How is this being framed?

3. What intersections of oppression do we see happening in this crisis?


4. How are dominant ideas of “aid” problematic, and how is “aid” being delivered in Haiti right now? Is aid better delivered by NGOs than governments?

5. What are ways that we, as individuals and collectively, can try to effect change or further just causes in a time of crisis for Haiti? How about the rest of the time?

I wrote up this sheet of tips for professors at my school to use and several other people have asked me for it. It is geared toward law school culture, but may be useful for others as well. I thought I'd post it here in case others can make use of it.

Very Basic Tips for Making Class Welcoming for Trans Students

In recent years, cultural, political and legal resistance to the oppression of transgender people has resulted in greater visibility of the issues facing this population and growing recognition of gender identity and expression discrimination. As these issues gain greater attention, and as obstacles to trans people’s participation in education and employment are addressed, we will likely continue to see more trans people coming to law school. These tips may be helpful in ensuring that your classroom is a welcoming place for SU’s trans students and that no unintentional exclusionary practices are occurring.

• Do not call the roll or otherwise read the roster aloud until you have given them a chance to state what they prefer to be called, in case the roster represents a prior name.
• Allow students to self-identify the name they go by, whether they prefer “Ms.” or “Mr.” and what pronouns they prefer. Don’t make assumptions based on what is on the class roster or the student’s appearance. A great way to accomplish this is to pass around a seating chart or sign in sheet and ask them to indicate these three items in writing, and then use it when you call on them or refer to them in class.
• If a student has an old name they do not use that you are aware of because you knew them before they changed it, or because it is on the roster, do not use it or reveal it to others. Well meaning comments like “I knew Gina when she was Bill,” even if meant supportively, reveal what might feel like personal information to the student, and unnecessarily draw attention to their trans identity.
• Set a tone in the classroom of respect. At the beginning of each semester when establishing the guidelines for class (don’t surf the internet while in class, do the reading, etc.) include something like: “It is important that this classroom be a respectful environment where everyone can participate comfortably. One part of respectful behavior is that everyone should be referred to by what they go by. This mean it is important to pronounce people’s names correctly, to refer to them by the pronouns they prefer, etc.” Add in whatever guidelines respect you see as important, but include pronoun usage since people are often unaware of the issue. You can hand out the attached pronoun etiquette sheet to students if you want to give them more information on the issue.
• If you make a mistake about someone’s pronoun, correct yourself. Going on as if it did not happen is actually less respectful than making the correction. This also saves the person who was misidentified from having to correct an incorrect pronoun assumption that has now been planted in the minds of classmates or anyone else who heard the mistake. As professors, especially, it is essential that we model respectful behavior.
• Whether in office hours, when speaking with students in groups, or when speaking with faculty and staff, when someone else makes a pronoun mistake, correct them. It is polite to provide a correction, whether or not the person whose pronoun was misused is present, in order to avoid future mistakes and in order to correct the mistaken assumption that might now have been planted in the minds of any other participants in the conversation who heard the mistake. Allowing the mistake to go uncorrected ensures future uncomfortable interactions for the person who is being misidentified.
• Never ask personal questions of trans people that you would not ask of others. Because of the sensationalist media coverage of trans people’s lives, there is often an assumption that personal questions are appropriate. Never ask about a trans person’s body or medical care, their old name, why or how they know they are trans, their sexual orientation or practices, their family’s reaction to their gender identity or any other questions that are irrelevant to your relationship with them unless they invite you to do so or voluntarily share the information.
• If you meet a student outside the classroom in a setting where they did not already get to self-identify via your seating chart, and you are not sure of the proper pronoun for them, ask. One way to do this is by sharing your own. “I use masculine pronouns. I want to make sure to address you correctly, how do you like to be addressed?” This may seem like a strange thing to do but a person who often experiences being addressed incorrectly may see it as a sign of respect that you are interested in getting it right rather than making assumptions. If you are not sure and do not want to ask, you can also avoid using pronouns—but making a pronoun assumption is the worst option.

Taking it Further

If you want to take your awareness of these issues further, here are some additional ideas to consider.
• Educate yourself about trans history, trans law, and trans resistance. There are wonderful resources on the internet, in addition to many law review articles and books of all kinds. Some great resources for trans law information include the Transgender Law and Policy Institute (www.transgenderlaw.org), The Transgender Law Center (www.transgenderlawcenter.org), the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (www.srlp.org), and the TGI Justice Project (www.tgijp.org).
• Include trans issues on your syllabus, and help your students learn how to talk about these issues respectfully and understand their importance. Important trans legal struggles can be found in tax, trusts and estates, family law, employment, civil rights, criminal law and criminal procedure, administrative law, poverty law, housing, public benefits, torts, etc. These cases might be a chance for students to familiarize themselves with the obstacles facing a community that is severely underserved by the legal profession.
• Think about how gender norms, or ideas about what men and women should be like, might be being enforced in your classroom or in other parts of your life. What does it mean to stand up against the rules of gender, both in the law and in other areas of our lives? How might we be enforcing gender norms on our selves or our loved ones with well-meaning advice or guidance? Exploring these questions can deepen our commitment to gender self-determination for all people and to eliminating coercive systems that punish gender variance.


Pronoun Etiquette

People often wonder how to be polite when it comes to problems of misidentifying another person’s pronoun. Here are some general tips:

1) If you make a mistake, correct yourself. Going on as if it did not happen is actually less respectful than making the correction. This also saves the person who was misidentified from having to correct an incorrect pronoun assumption that has now been planted in the minds of any other participants in the conversation who heard the mistake.
2) If someone else makes a mistake, correct them. It is polite to provide a correction, whether or not the person whose pronoun as misused is present, in order to avoid future mistakes and in order to correct the mistaken assumption that might now have been planted in the minds of any other participants in the conversation who heard the mistake.
3) If you aren’t sure of a person’s pronoun, ask. One way to do this is by sharing your own. “I use masculine pronouns. I want to make sure to address you correctly, how do you like to be addressed?” This may seem like a strange thing to do but a person who often experiences being addressed incorrectly may see it as a sign of respect that you are interested in getting it right.
4) When facilitating a group discussion, ask people to identify their pronouns when they go around and do introductions. This will allow everyone in the room the chance to self-identify and to get each others’ pronouns right the first time. It will also reduce the burden on anyone whose pronoun is often misidentified and may help them access the discussion more easily because they do not have to fear an embarrassing mistake.

this conference seems like its going to be really interesting, thought i'd post it early in case anyone wants to put it on their calendar.
http://www.sas.upenn.edu/wstudies/rethinkingsex/speakers.html

This article describes the tragic death of trans activist, Duanna Johnson. I thought you all might want to know about these heartbreaking events.
http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=7831290&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

Craig and I recently posted a statement and some resources for further reading on Make (also on Facebook as a group called “I still think marriage is the wrong goal.”) I thought this might interest Enough readers who are as dissatisfied by the neoliberal gay agenda as we are.

http://makezine.enoughenough.org/prop8.html

hi friends,

first, in a shocking turn of unfortunate events, craig and i lost the domain name for our long time webpage makezine, so we've moved it to makezine.enoughenough.org. sad!

second, i'm working on putting in to writing various conversations i have a lot and thought i'd post this one here in case its of use to anyone else.

Tips for Students Interested in Organizing Conferences

I am contacted by students (often, but not always, law students) who want to put on conferences or other events at their schools, usually about trans issues. I find myself giving the same advice a lot, so I thought I’d write down some of what I say in hopes that I can share this document with them, and perhaps it will be useful to others advising students as well.

First, it is great that you want to organize a conference to help people think about an issue that really needs good thinking done about it. It is important to do this work carefully and well in order to create an event that contributes to the struggles you are interested in and does not have any harmful or unintended consequences that you would want to avoid. Here are some principles and strategies to keep in mind:

• Leadership on all social and political issues should be centered with those who are directly affected. This means that a majority of speakers at your event should be members of that community, not “experts” or “professionals” talking about them. If that community (e.g. trans people, sex workers, prisoners and former prisoners) are severely under represented in your academic/professional field, this means your conference will have to include speakers who are not trained in your academic/professional field—that you elevate this leadership principle over the professional norms in your school/professional field.
• Within any social or political issue, it is essential to center the experiences of those who are most vulnerable to the worst manifestations of the oppression in order to form a full intersectional analysis of the issue. Frequently oppression gets viewed through just one vector (e.g., transphobia, homophobia) and the prime spokespeople on an issue become people who do not experience other vectors of oppression in combination with that one (e.g. white upper class trans people, white upper class gay men), which leads to framings and agendas that fail to challenge, and in fact uphold, white supremacy, sexism, ablism, etc. So whatever the issue you are organizing on, make sure that your choice of speakers and topics centralizes race, class, immigration, sexism and ablism. For example, instead of trans panels focusing on employment rights, marriage, and visibility in the mainstream media, create panels focusing on Medicaid rights, immigration, and imprisonment. Make sure that at least half your speakers are people of color, and that the organizations represented are ones that prioritize those who are most vulnerable rather than using single-issue approaches.
• Let the people you are inviting help plan the event. Your invitees may have key information about what would be the most useful types of conversations, what other speakers who you haven’t thought of will be important for the conversation, etc. If you find a few key speakers who you think represent the above principles, ask for their input about the organizing.
• Be careful not to schedule it against other events that are important to the communities affected by the issue, which might impact their ability to come or make them make a hard choice.
• Use the event to funnel resources toward underfunded organizations/communities. This event is a learning opportunity for students at your school, but what does it do to forward the work of fighting oppression? Can this event be a way to pay honoraria to organizations struggling to keep their doors open to do life-saving work (esp organizations that are governed by people of color, that serve poor communities, that work on issues unpopular with funders and the media)? Ask the speakers what would make the event useful to them—rather than being only a 101 on the issues for students, how can the event be structured to be a place for leaders on this issue to come together and discuss strategy and collaboration?
• Think about how this event can change the institution you are in. Are there oppressive policies and practices within your university that should be addressed, rather than just looking outside? How does your university serve/fail to serve oppressed communities? Can this event help mobilize activism at your school to end transphobic policies in your school, to start a program where your university provides educational opportunities to people in the local prison or jail, to address racist and classist admissions criteria, to support underpaid workers or workers trying to unionize in your school?
• Make your methods of organizing the event inclusive, consensus-building, collaborative and collective. Education has a tendency to push us towards capitalist norms of individualism, self-promotion and competition. Organizing for resistance must be about relationship building, eliminating hierarchy, shifting leadership, making room for new voices, and empowering more people to participate. It is essential to think about who is included in the planning and whose leadership is being emphasized in terms of race, gender, class, national origin, and ability. Think about how to structure your event planning toward anti-oppression principles. It will create more community and shared values on your campus, build more leadership skills in more people, spread out the work and make it more sustainable, and improve the quality of the work because more people will have input. It will also build more durable and stronger structures for any organizing work you are trying to create on campus. A good tool for meeting planning and facilitation is the book On Conflict and Consensus.

Every event we create has the potential to reproduce oppressive systems that exist in our institutions or to be part of building meaningful resistance. Practicing critical thinking and strategizing to discern these opportunities and maximize them is part of learning to be an effective agent for change, and part of contributing to resource redistribution. Good luck organizing a powerful and transformative event!

i thought this zine might interest you about politics of imprisonment and gender in germany: http://october15thsolidarity.info/files/Lockdown_EN_WEB.pdf
also, another resource from the brilliant sarah lamble: THE QUEER, FEMINIST & TRANS POLITICS OF PRISON ABOLITION

Full Version (10.46 MB):
http://www.mediafire.com/?a8kh1ullztg

Compressed Version (1.92 MB)
http://www.mediafire.com/?spducjbhkqp

i hope everyone is gearing up to get yourself to CR10 later this month! criticalresistance.org.
xoxo

****************PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY!******************
 
Dear friends,
 
After much excited brainstorming, dialoguing, essay soliciting, and teaching ourselves basic web skills, we are thrilled to announce the official launch of a new website: ENOUGH!
 
ENOUGH is a space for conversations about how a commitment to wealth redistribution plays out in our lives: how we decide what to have, what to keep, what to give away; how we work together to build sustainable grassroots movements; how we challenge capitalism in daily, revolutionary ways.
 
We want this site to be a space for conversation, inspiration, and the creation of ideas. Please read, comment, send us thoughts, submit essays, and join the conversation!
 
Tyrone Boucher and Dean Spade
www.enoughenough.org/

i am supposed to be on a plane to newark and then stockholm (for http://www.stockholmpride.org/en/) but they sent me home from the airport and told me to start over tomorrow and add and extra stop and hope to make it there, so somehow i have a free day! this feels very exciting. things have been busy since i moved to seattle and a bonus day to settle in and get things done and be in the sun is wonderful.
i've been working on putting together my poverty law syllabus for the fall. i discovered that United for a Fair Economy has a really good curriculum about the racial wealth divide that is freely downloadable on their website. full of good tools. i also recommend the PBS film series "Unnatural Causes" which is available through libraries and is very compelling to watch and a great teaching tool about poverty and racism but also an amazing way to teach biopolitics i think. i'll report back on how that goes.
tyrone and i are gearing up to debut the enough website in late july. prepare yourselves to forward our future announcement widely. we're hoping to drum up some excellent conversation.
oh, and here is an article emma forwarded that i thought would be a good tool for talking with people like parents and weird conservative siblings and stuff about what's wrong in the US. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/jul/17/internationalaidanddevelopment.usa
also, if anyone knows, i'm looking for info about the outgames. i was invited to possibly speak at the conference they have alongside it and i don't know the politics of the event so i wondered if anyone has insider info? what should i know about this?

i have a reluctant relationship with the internet, computers, phones, etc., but Nick sent me this article about cognitive surplus that made me feel like at least writing on blogs is better than watching tv.
http://www.herecomeseverybody.org/2008/04/looking-for-the-mouse.html
in that spirit, have a look at craig's new sociology blog. http://blog.cwillse.net. he gets excited when there are lots of visitors.
and the real reason i'm posting: i keep meeting students (grad and undergrad) at different universities and colleges who are working on making their student health services provide trans health care. i am excited about the idea of people coordinating efforts, sharing strategies, and linking their struggles with those of university employees trying to gain coverage. i think that winning coverage from big institutional employers is important because it strengthens our arguments for Medicaid coverage and for coverage under any emerging universal health program we get. (for more on this see nick gorton's new article in sexuality research and social policy). so, i'm encouraging these students to start a list serve about the topic. if you know that such a thing already exists, or if you know of people who should be a part of it, please let me know and i'll pass it along to them.
finally, i'm going to seattle to look for housing this week. if you want to rent me and bridge a two or three bedroom house or part of a house somewhere near seattle university with a yard, let me know.

I just updated the syllabus for my Law and Social Movements class to reflect changes that I made over the course of the semester. The final version is below in the Feb 1 entry for anyone interested.

Here it is so far, although it will no doubt change and be further developed over the course of the semester. I'll post the finalized version at the end of the semester in case it interests anyone.

Law and Social Movements
Harvard Law School
Spring 2008

Course Description
This course will critically examine the relationship between law and social movements, specifically engaging texts and materials that suggest a relationship that includes criminalization and cooptation. Often in the legal profession and in legal academia, as well as in popular culture, we hear of the relationship between law and social movements primarily in terms of the use of legal strategies such as litigation and policy reform to secure rights and freedoms for oppressed and excluded groups. Many people come to law school specifically with the aim of utilizing legal skills to support and bolster the equality claims of marginalized communities. The materials used in this course will problematize the assumption that the primary role of law with regard to social movements is to support emancipatory progress. We will instead take the opportunity to look broadly at the meanings of key concepts such as discrimination, freedom, liberation, power, governance and violence as they relate to the stories that lawyers, movement activists, governments, and the media tell about the role of law in movements for social change. Our examination will engage “law” beyond strictly jurisprudence and look at the construction of legality and illegality with regard to dissent. Our inquiry will aim to cultivate deeper understandings of the current parameters and possibilities within social movements given the incentives and disincentives provided by various technologies of legal intervention over the past half century.

Course Materials
All materials will be provided as pdf files on the course website except materials from two books, The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non Profit Industrial Complex, Ed. Incite!, and How NonViolence Protects the State by Peter Gelderloos, which can be purchased at the Coop.

Schedule (subject to change)
Intro: Framing Social Movement Claims

Week 1
(January 30, 31)

Wendy Brown, States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity, 96-134
Chela Sandoval, Methodologies of the Oppressed, pp. 41-67
Lisa Duggan, Twilight of Equality Introduction and Chapter 3
Miami Workers Center, “Four Pillars of Social Justice Infrastructure” (Handout in Class)

Part I. Criminalization of Social Movements

Films on reserve (or soon to be):
Documentaries:
The Weather Underground
Legacy of Torture
Forest for the Trees
Guerrilla, the taking of Patty Hearst
Camden 28
Narrative:
Born in Flames
Battle of Algiers
Malcolm X
Running on Empty

Week 2
(February 6, 7)
Assata, Ch 1, 5
William, Evelyn, Inadmissible Evidence: The Story of the African-American Trial
Lawyer who Defended the Black Liberation Army. USA: iUniverse.com Inc. 2000. Chapter 8, pg. 77-89, Chapter 11, pg. 107-120, Chapter 13, pg. 131-135, Chapter 14, pg. 136-147.
Balagoon, Kuwasi. A Soldier’s Story: Writings by a Revolutionary New Afrikan
Anarchist. Kersplebedeb Publishing 2003. Opening Statement, pg. 27-56, Closing Statement, pg. 57-67.
Gilbert, David. No Surrender: Writings from an Anti-Imperialist Political Prisoner. Toronto, Ontario: Arm the Spirit, 2004, First Court Statement, pg. 26 -27, Opening Trial Statement, pg. 27-30.
Ward Churchill and Jim Vander Wall, COINTELPRO Papers (sections on Black Liberation Movement, New Left and Conclusion)
Arthur Kinoy, Rights On Trial, 1-38

Week 3
(February 13, 14)
Cathy Wilkerson, “Flying Close to the Sun.” 1-4, 379-393
Jacobs, Harold ed., Weatherman. Ramparts Press, Inc. 1970. Thomas, Tom. “The Second Battle of Chicago,” pg.196-226, Ono, Shinya. “A Weatherman: You Do Need A Weatherman To Know Which Way the Wind Blows,” pg. 227-274.
Matsimela, Muntu et al. eds., Black Prison Movements USA New Jersey: Africa
World Press, Inc. 1995. Bandele, Safiya and ibn Kenyatta. “On Refusing Parole,” pg. 86-105, Elijah, Jill Soffiyah. “Special International Tribunal in Human Rights Violations of Political/POW Prisoners in the United States,” pg. 137-148.
Committee to End the Marion Lockdown. Can’t Jail the Spirit: Political Prisoners in
the U.S. 2002.
Lopez-Rivera, Oscar. “Puerto Rican Prisoner of War,” pg. 171-174.
SF8 Case materials (please review the website, http://www.freethesf8.org)

Week 4
(February 20, 21)
Guest Speaker Feb. 20, Susan Tipograph.
Churchill, Ward and J.J. Vander Wall, eds., Cages of Steel: The Politics of Imprisonment in the United States. Washington, DC: Maisonneuve Press, c1992. Korn, Richard. Excerpts from – “Report on the Effects of Confinement in the Lexington High Security Unit,” pg. 123-127, Rosenberg, Susan. “Reflections on Being Buried Alive,” pg. 128-130, Shakur, Mutulu et al. “Prisoners of War: The Legal Standing of Members of the National Liberation Movements,” pg. 152-173,Whitehorn, Laura. “Preventive Detention: A Prevention of Human Rights?” pg. 365-277, “Excerpts from - The Verdict of the International Tribunal on Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War in the United States,” pg. 403-413.
Georgakas, Dan and Marvin Surkin. Detroit: I do Mind Dying: A Study in Urban
Revolution. Cambridge, Massachusetts: South End Press, 1998. “James Johnson: A Prologue,” pg. 9-11, Chapter 8: “Stop the Robberies, Enjoy Safe Streets: STRESS,” pg. 151-173, Chapter 9: “Mr. Justin Ravitz, Marxist Judge of Recorder’s Court,” pg. 175-187.

Part II. Violence, Discrimination, Cooptation and Law

Week 5
(February27, 28)
Coronado, Rod. Flaming Arrows: A Compilation of Works by Rod Coronado. North Carolina: IEF Press, 2006. Rosenfeld, Ben. “The ‘Case’ Against Rod Coronado: A legal Memo on the Green Scale.” Coronado, Rod. “The High Price of Pacifism”
Peter Gelderloos, How Nonviolence Protects the State Chapters 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7.
Color of Violence excerpts including:
Lisa Sudbury, Chapter 1: Rethinking Antiviolence Strategies: Lessons from the Black Women’s Movement in Britain
Dorothy Robert, Chapter 4: Feminism, Race, and Adoption Policy
Andrea J. Ritchie, Chapter 17: Law Enforcement Violence Against Women of Color
Patricia Allard, Chapter 18: Crime, Punishment, and Economic Violence


Week 6
(Marcy 5, 6)
Alan Freeman, “Legitimizing Racial Discrimination Through Anti-Discrimination Law: A Critical Review of Supreme Court Doctrine” in Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement, (ed. Crenshaw et. al)
Lisa A. Crooms, “Everywhere There's War”: A Racial Realist's Reconsideration of Hate Crimes Statutes, Inaugural Issue Geo. J. Gender & Law 41, 44 (1999)
More Color of Violence Excerpts including:
Chapter 2: Disability in the New World Order, by Nirmala Erevelles
Chapter 10: The War to Be Human/ Becoming Human in a Time of War, by Neferti Tadiar
Chapter 11: The Forgotten “-ism”: An Arab American Women’s Perspective on Zionism, Racism, and Sexism, by Nadine Naber, Eman Desouky, and Lina Baroudi
Chapter 14: “National Security” and the Violation of Women: Militarized Border Rape at the US- Mexico Border, by Sylvanna Falcon
Chapter 15: The Complexities of “Feminicide” on the Border, by Rosa Linda Fregoso
Chapter 16: INS Raids and How Immigrant Women are Fighting Back, by Renee Saucedo
Chapter 23: Sistas Makin’ Moves: Collective Leadership for Personal Transformation
and Social Justice
Chapter 24: Disloyal to Feminism: Abuse of Survivors within the Domestic Violence Shelter System, by Emi Koyama
Chapter 25: Gender Violence and the Prison-Industrial Complex: Statement by Critical Resistance and Incite! Women of Color Against Violence
Chapter 26: Trans Day of Action for Social and Economic Justice: Statement by TransJustice, a project of Audre Lorde Project, a community organizing center for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two-Spirit, and Transgender People of Color in the New York city Area
Chapter 29: Taking Risks: Implementing Grassroots Community Accountability Strategies: Written by a collective of women of color from Communities Against Rape and Abuse (CARA): Alisa Bierra, Onion Carrillo, Eboni Colbert, Xandra Ibarra, Theryn Kigvamasud’Vashti, and Shale Maulana
Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?, pp 9-83

Week 7
(March 13, 14)
The Revolution Will Not Be Funded Excerpts including:
Chapter 1: The Political Logic of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, by Dylan Rodríguez
Chapter 2: In The Shadow of the Shadow State, by Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Chapter 4: Democratizing American Philanthropy, by Christine E. Ahn
Chapter 10: Social Service or Social Change?, by Paul Kivel
Chapter 15: Non-Profits and the Autonomous Grassroots, by Eric Tang


Part III. Biopolitics and Governmentality

Week 8
(Marcy 19, 20)
Catch Up

Week 9 (April 2, 3)
Michel Foucault, “Governmentality”
Michel Foucault, “Society Must Be Defended”
Mitchell Dean, Governmentality, Chapters 1, 5

Part IV. Trans and Queer Politics and Legal Strategy in the Context of Criminalization and Cooptation

Films on Reserve (or soon to be):
Homotopia
Market This
NGLTF’s Marriage Documentary
Screaming Queens

Week 10
(April 10, 11)
Angela Harris, “From Stonewall to the suburbs?: Toward a political economy of sexuality,” 14 William and Mary Bill of Rights Journal, 1539 (2006).
Anna Agathangelou, Morgan Bassichis, Tamara Spira, “Intimate Investments: Homonormativity, Global Lockdown, and the Seductions of Empire,” Radical History Review 2007.
Please review the materials found here: HYPERLINK "http://www.hrc.org/issues/hate_crimes/5895.htm" http://www.hrc.org/issues/hate_crimes/5895.htm INCLUDEPICTURE "http://i.ixnp.com/images/v3.13/t.gif" \* MERGEFORMATINET
Alex Lee, “Gendered Crime & Punishment: Strategies to Protect Transgender, Gender Variant & Intersex People in America’s Prisons”

Optional:
Sarah Lamble, Retelling Racialized Violence, Remaking White Innocence: The Politics of Interlocking Oppressions in Transgender Day of Remembrance (forthcoming in Sexuality Research and Social Policy: Journal of NSRC)
Christina Hanhardt, “Butterflies, Whistles and Fists: Gay Safe Street Patrols and the New Gay Ghetto 1976-1981,” Radical History Review 2007.
Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825 (1994)
Lucrecia v. Samples, 1995 WL 630016 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 16, 1995)
Powell v. Schriver, 175 F.3d 107, 115 (2d Cir. 1999)

Week 11
(April 16, 17)
Jasbir Puar, Terrorist Assemblages, Chapter 3, Intimate Control, Infinite Detention: Rereading the Lawrence case (pp. 114-165)
Kenyon Farrow, “Is Gay Marriage Anti-Black?”
Marlon Bailey, Priya Kandaswamy, Mattie Udora Richardson, “Is Gay Marriage Racist?” In That’s Revolting: Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation, Ed. Sycamore (2005).
Lisa Duggan, Twilight of Equality (review Ch. 3, “Equality, Inc.”)
“The Impact of the War on Terror on LGBTST Communities” at http://srlp.org/index.php?sec=03M&page=wotnotes

Part V. Surveillance, Social Movements, and the War on Terror

Week 12
(April 23, 24)
Look around at HYPERLINK "http://www.realnightmare.org" www.realnightmare.org
FBI Biometrics Database article (Dec. 22, 2007) (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/21/AR2007122102544.html?nav=rss_print/asection)
Materials on Drivers License battles
Dean Spade, “Documenting Gender,” forthcoming in the Hastings Law Journal.

The final Real ID regs are out. Its so depressing and enraging. Here is a press release about some events going on in NYC upcoming and also provides some analysis. I also recommend realnighmare.org.

New York Civil Liberties Union
125 Broad Street, New York, NY 10004
www.nyclu.org

CONTACT:

Jennifer Carnig, 212.607.3363 / jcarnig@nyclu.org

NYCLU Analysis: Real ID Regulations Jeopardize Rights, Liberties and State Budget

Long Island and Manhattan Forums to Show What Real ID Means for New York

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 15, 2008 -- Final federal regulations for implementing the Real ID Act only intensify concerns that the law would gravely threaten privacy rights by establishing a national identification system, according to an analysis by the New York Civil Liberties Union.

The NYCLU calls on New York to join the 17 other states nationwide that have rejected the Real ID Act. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released the final regulations Friday following more than a year of delays.

"The regulations are nothing more than window-dressing for a fundamentally flawed law," said Donna Lieberman, NYCLU executive director. "They do not address the grave harm Real ID would do to New Yorkers' privacy and liberty. They do not change the fact that we don't know the price tag for this dubious venture - except that it will be exorbitant and that it will divert resources from far more deserving social service and public safety initiatives."

On Oct. 27, 2007, Gov. Spitzer announced that New York would implement the Real ID Act just before he abandoned his plan to offer secure driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants. The NYCLU calls on him to abandon the Real ID Act.

The NYCLU is hosting a series of public forums to inform people of the threats that the Real ID Act poses to democratic values. A Long Island forum will take place at 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 15 at Huntington Town Hall, 100 Main St. in Huntington. Another community forum is scheduled in New York City for 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan 24. at the New York Society for Ethical Culture at 2 W. 64th St. Forums have previously been held in Rochester and Rheinbeck.

The Real ID Act goes well beyond setting federal standards for state driver's license or identification cards. The gravest risk, according to the NYCLU, is what the regulations do not say. They include no limits or constraints upon the authority of the government to dictate when a Real ID may be required. In fact, the regulations strongly suggest that in the future a Real ID driver's license could be required for routine transactions and activities, such as voting or applying for federal benefits. The Department of Homeland Security claims authority to expand the list at any time without congressional approval.

What's more, the federal regulations do not prohibit private sector businesses and organizations from requiring Real ID driver's licenses for commercial and financial activities, such as renting a DVD or buying car insurance. In short, people could not manage their lives without a Real ID card; it would become a necessity - a de facto national ID card.

The NYCLU's critique of the Real ID law includes the following observations:

* If implemented, the Real ID Act could establish an enormous electronic infrastructure that government and law enforcement officials - or whoever else hacks in - could use to track Americans' activities and movements.

* The final regulations do not set rules for the security of Americans' personal information. The Real ID statute requires that each state provide an unspecified array of government officials in all other states and territories access to personal information stored in DMV databases - such as Social Security numbers, photos and copies of birth certificates. The Department of Homeland Security essentially leaves it up to the states to determine how to protect privacy and security. This means sensitive, personal information would only be as safe as the DMV or state office with the weakest security system.

* The law also mandates that all driver's licenses and ID cards have a "machine-readable zone" that would facilitate tracking by the government and private sector. Real IDs would leave a digital fingerprint whenever swiped, scanned or read, which would allow the federal government, or anyone with a reader, to collect an enormous amount of information about people's activities and interests. Encrypting the information on Real ID-compliant driver's licenses would reduce some of the privacy threats, but the Department of Homeland Security has refused to require encryption, fearing that it would prevent easy access to the information contained in the barcodes.

* The final regulations place no limits on what types of information could be stored in the Real ID's machine-readable zone. Nor do the regulations prohibit third-party access to such information - meaning any business equipped with a reader could capture personal information and use it to develop customer "lifestyle profiles" or simply sell the information to other businesses or to the federal government.

"Essentially, the Real ID Act puts our personal information up for sale," Lieberman said. "It is the equivalent of an EZ-Pass for identity thieves. Under this law, the federal government conceivably could learn what books people read, what sorts of contraception they use or what medications they are prescribed."

* The Real ID Act imposes an enormous unfunded mandate upon the states. Despite a nearly $10 billion cost estimate, the federal government has set aside only $40 million to help states pay for implementing the law. The Department of Homeland Security has made it clear that it expects individuals and state governments to pay for the costs of Real ID. At a time when New York is facing a $4 billion budget deficit, the Spitzer administration has estimated that implementation of the Real ID Act would cost New York tens of millions of dollars annually and require 10 new DMV offices.

The Real ID Act was originally supposed to take effect on May 11, 2008, but these regulations clearly leave the issue with the next administration. The final regulations grant states an extension, until Dec. 31, 2009, to agree to comply with the law. An additional extension, until May 10, 2011, would be provided to states that submit a material compliance checklist. (According to the final regulations, individuals younger than 50 have until Dec. 1, 2014 to obtain a Real ID-compliant driver's license. Individuals 50 and older have until Dec. 1, 2017.)

i just got an email from the northstar fund about this workshop. i don't know anything about it but thought it might interest people just to see the description.

An Opportunity for Intensive Dialogue About a Taboo Topic
A Class Action workshop

Saturday, March 1st 10 AM – 6 PM & Sunday, March 2nd 10 AM – 1 PM

What class did you grow up in? What strengths and limitations came from your class background? How has your class background affected your relationships with people of the same and different classes?
What are key elements in your class culture? How do different class cultures look? What would you like to ask people who grew up in completely different class backgrounds?
How does race intersect with class? How do you see things that are about classism being named racism?
What are the larger economic and political factors affecting class now?
How do class dynamics show up in your life? Your work? Your home? Your community?
What are steps you can take to overcome class barriers in your life personally and institutionally?
How do you decide how much to pay, how do you value different choices you make?
Join a diverse group to explore these questions and more.

Cost: To determine the amount you will pay for attending the workshop we use a radical process called Cost Sharing, which is designed to make you and us comfortable with your contribution. Past participants have paid between $0 - $1,500. Its your choice. All participants of our workshops benefit greatly when all class backgrounds are represented, so please, dont count yourself out. Many past participants have said that the Cost Sharing process was the best part of the workshop for them.

Feel free to contact us with any transportation or childcare needs, concerns, or fears you might have.

Registration is required. For more info please contact Class Action:

(413)585-9709 or email, info@classism.org or register on line at www.classism.org. Please register early, space is limited!

Workshop Facilitators: Rhonda Soto and Felice Yeskel
Rhonda Soto, Class Actions Race/Class Intersections Program Coordinator, was born and raised in Harlem, New York. As a single parent on welfare, she moved to a culturally all white suburban area. She continued her education and worked her way towards earning a bachelors degree from Mount Holyoke College. Upon completing her bachelors, Rhonda worked with teens in a transitional shelter, then with GED students preparing for college. Most recently she taught middle school where she also chaired their diversity committee.

Felice Yeskel, Executive Director of Class Action and Co-Founder of United for a Fair Economy comes from a working class Jewish family from New York City's lower-east side. She is an educator and activist and the co-author of Economic Apartheid in America, second edition was published by The New Press in the fall of 2005.

This workshop is co-sponsored by North Star Fund and Resource Generation

i can't stop eating this cabbage salad: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/240584 even though it is freezing cold here and totally wrong to be eating cold crispy things. there's been no heat in my house for two days! extreme new england welcome.
speaking of which, i just got to boston a few days ago and i have many visitors coming this weekend. if you know of delicious foods to eat here or good things to do that can be done in the snow and with a 2.75 year old, please tell me. especially delicious foods near cambridge. i'll probably just be eating cabbage salad but they might want something else.

hi friends,

i'm working on my syllabus for law and social movements. in general, i'm interested in teaching it from a perspective that helps the students critically engage the assumption that some people have that the way to think about "law and social movements" is that legal reform is primarily a beneficial element in social movements. instead, i want us to see how law often criminalizes and coopts social movements, and then think through strategic questions about how that works, how some lawyers and activists try to avoid that while still engaging in law reform, how the focus on legal reform has shaped demands of social movements, etc.

an initial part of the syllabus is about the criminalization of social movements, and i'm having a hard time picking readings. if you have favorite texts (or even films) about the criminalization of social movements, and specifically the role of lawyers (either defending or prosecuting) in those battles, let me know. autobiographies that include discussion of legal strategy or dilemmas faced by lawyers or criminalized activists, critical articles or books, interesting histories all welcome. so far some of my thoughts are:
the part in Assata where she refuses to participate in her trial
the COINTELPRO Papers
some of the autobiographical stuff from the Weather Underground (do you have a favorite book or passage?)
some of the stuff by or about Angela Davis' prosecution
discussion of the SF8 case
other good discussions of criminalization of contemporary social movements?

if you can think of specific things within what i have listed, or other things, that might be a good way to think about the criminalization of social movements, especially for future lawyers interested in social movements, that is great. some students, i imagine, will be familiar with some of this history and others totally new to it.

i'll post the syllabus when i get it in better shape. thanks for the help!

so, my long job search has ended. after a torturous decision i accepted a job at seattle u. which i am so excited about. feel free to let me know about important northwest things/people/events/mountains i should know. i'll be there probably in july sometime.

I thought other people might be interested in the syllabus I just finished teaching. I always like to see other people's. Also, I want to HIGHLY recommend a new book: Jasbir Puar's Terrorist Assemblages.


Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies 187

Race, Class, Ability and Transgender Rights
Fall 2007
Wednesday 12-2:50pm
Public Affairs 2325

Instructor:
Dean Spade

REQUIRED TEXTS
The Revolution Will Not Be Funded: Beyond the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, ed. Incite! Women of Color Against Violence (South End Press, 2007) (hereinafter “RWNBF”).
The Transgender Studies Reader, eds. Whittle and Stryker (Routledge, 2006) (hereinafter “TSR”).

All other readings will be provided as PDF files on the course webpage or as handouts in class.

Schedule

October 3
First Class, no reading but we will meet for the full class period.

October 10
Janice Raymond, “Sappho by Surgery: The Transsexually Constructed Lesbian Feminist,” TSR p. 131
Sandy Stone, “The Empire Strikes Back: A Posttranssexual Manifesto,” TSR 221
Emi Koyama, “Whose Feminism Is It Anyway: The Unspoken Racism of the Trans Inclusion Debate,” TSR p. 699

October 17
Chela Sandoval, “Methodologies of the Oppressed” excerpt (PDF on Course Website)
Kimberly Crenshaw, Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color, in Critical Race Theory: Key Writings That Formed the Movement (1995) (PDF on Course Website)
Roderick A. Ferguson, Aberrations in Black: Toward a Queer of Color Critique, Pages 1-29 (PDF on Course Website)

October 24
Films: Cruel and Unusual, Toilet Training, Boy I Am, and No Dumb Questions

October 31
Class held in Royce 314
Guest Speakers, Filmmakers Chris Vargas and Eric Stanley
Readings: “Anti-Colonial Responses to Gender Violence” from Conquest by Andrea Smith

November 7
Eli Clare, Exile and Pride excerpt (PDF on Course Website)
Doe v. Bell (PDF on Course Website)
Dwight B. Billings and Thomas Urban, The Socio-Medical Construction of Transsexualism: An Interpretation and Critique, 29 SOCIAL PROBLEMS 266, 276 (1982) (PDF on Course Website)
Nick Gorton, Toward a Resolution of GID, the Model of Disease, and the Transgender Community, available at http://www.makezine.org/giddisease.htm
Optional Reading:
Adrienne L. Hiegel, “Sexual Exclusions: The Americans with Disabilities Act as a Moral Code,” 94 Colum. L. Rev. 1451 (1994) (PDF on Course Website)

November 14
Angela Harris, “From Stonewall to the Suburbs?” (PDF on Course Website)
Alex Lee, Nowhere to Go But Out: The Collision between Transgender and Gender-Variant Prisoners and the Gender Binary in America’s Prisons available at http://spr.org/pdf/NowhereToGoButOut.pdf
Testimony from the National Prison Rape Elimination Commission Hearings 2005 (PDF on Course Website)
Sample prison policies regarding transgender inmates (Handout)

November 21
Sarah Lamble, Retelling Racialized Violence, Remaking White Innocence: The Politics of Interlocking Oppressions in Transgender Day of Remembrance (forthcoming in Sexuality Research and Social Policy: Journal of NSRC) (PDF on Course Website)
Instead of Prisons: A Handbook for Abolitionists (excerpts) (PDF on Course Website)
Please review the materials found here: http://www.hrc.org/issues/hate_crimes/5895.htm
Bassichis, Aganthangelou and Spira, Intimate Investment: Homonormativity, Global Lockdown and the Seductions of Empire (forthcoming in Radical History Review) (PDF on Course Website)
Optional Reading:
Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825 (1994) (PDF on Course Website)
Lucrecia v. Samples, 1995 WL 630016 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 16, 1995) (PDF on Course Website)
Powell v. Schriver, 175 F.3d 107, 115 (2d Cir. 1999) (PDF on Course Website)

November 28
Miami Workers’ Center, Four Pillars of Social Justice Infrastructure (PDF on Course Website)
Andrea Smith, Introduction: The Revolution Will Not Be Funded in RWNBF
Dylan Rodriguez, The Political Logic of the Non-Profit Industrial Complex in RWNBF
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, In the Shadow of the Shadow State in RWNBF

December 5
Rickke Mananzala and Dean Spade, The Nonprofit Industrial Complex and Trans Resistance, Sexuality Research and Social Policy: Journal of NSRC (PDF on Course Website)
Paul Kivel, Social Service or Social Change? In RWNBF
Erik Tang, Non-Profits and the Autonomous Grassroots, in RWNBF
Nicole Burrowes, Morgan Cousins, Paula X Rojas, and Ije Ude, On Our Own Terms: Ten Years of Radical Community Building with Sista II Sista, in RWNBF

First, Colby and I wrote an article about cell phones for the Movement Vision Blog. Have a look at http://www.movementvisionlab.org/blog/can-you-hear-me-now-the-trouble-with-cell-phones

Second, I'm in the middle of interviewing for all these law professor jobs, which is tiring but interesting. The only city I'm interviewing in that I know almost nothing about is Pittsburgh. If you know about zillions of cool trans people or brilliant radicals living and doing work in Pittsburgh, write and tell me, okay?

At the Sylvia Rivera Law Project's after-party following its fifth
anniversary celebration last night, two members of the community were
violently arrested and others were pepper sprayed by police without
warning or cause. The two folks who were arrested remain in police
custody and should be arraigned tomorrow. (More details of the incident
can be found below in the press release.)

We ask that people show up tomorrow, Thursday, starting at 9:30am and
continuing throughout the day to call for the immediate release of and
the dropping of charges against the people who were arrested. The
arraignment court rooms are at 100 Centre St (Directions: No. 4 or 5
train to Brooklyn Bridge Station; No. 6 train, N, R or C train to Canal
Street; No. 1 train to Franklin Street; M1, M6 and M15 bus lines are
nearby. 100 Centre Street is one block north of Worth Street, three
blocks south of Canal Street.) Ask for directions to the arraignment
rooms at the info desk when you enter.

For more information or to receive updates via email or text message,
contact Jack at jack@srlp.org, who should be at court and have email
access throughout the day.


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contacts:
Jack Aponte (jack@srlp.org, 347-247-1526) Naomi Clark (naomi@srlp.org,
917-907-4870)


Police Brutality Strikes Fifth Anniversary of Sylvia Rivera Law Project

NEW YORK - On the night of Wednesday, September 26, officers from the
9th Precinct of the New York Police Department attacked without
provocation members of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project and of its
community. Two of our community members were violently arrested, and
others were pepper sprayed in the face without warning or cause.

The Sylvia Rivera Law Project (www.srlp.org) is an organization that
works on behalf of low-income people of color who are transgender,
gender non-conforming, or intersex, providing free legal services and
advocacy among many other initiatives. On Wednesday night, the Sylvia
Rivera Law Project was celebrating its fifth anniversary with a
celebration and fundraising event at a bar in the East Village.

A group of our community members, consisting largely of queer and
transgender people of color, witnessed two officers attempting to detain
a young Black man outside of the bar. Several of our community members
asked the officers why they were making the arrest and using excessive
force. Despite the fact that our community was on the sidewalk, gathered
peacefully and not obstructing foot traffic, the NYPD chose to
forcefully grab two people and arrested them. Without warning, an
officer then sprayed pepper spray across the group in a wide arc,
temporarily blinding many and causing vomiting and intense pain.

"This is the sort of all-too-common police violence and overreaction
towards people of color that happens all the time," said Dean Spade,
founder of the Sylvia Rivera Law Project. "It's ironic that we were
celebrating the work of an organization that specifically opposes state
violence against marginalized communities, and we experienced a police
attack at our celebration."

"We are outraged, and demand that our community members be released and
the police be held accountable for unnecessary use of excessive force
and falsely arresting people," Spade continued.

Damaris Reyes is executive director of GOLES, an organization working to
preserve the Lower East Side. She commented, "I'm extremely concerned
and disappointed by the 9th Precinct's response to the situation and how
it escalated into violence. This kind of aggressive behavior doesn't do
them any good in community-police relations."

Supporters are gathered at 100 Center Street, where the
two community members are being held awaiting arraignment. The community calls for
charges to be dropped and to demand the immediate release of those
arrested.